Xeno nucleic acids (XNA) are synthetic nucleic acid analogues that have a different backbone from the ribose and deoxyribose found in the nucleic acids of naturally occurring RNA and DNA.
The same nucleobases can be used to store genetic information and interact with DNA, RNA, or other XNA bases, but the different backbone gives the structure different stability, and it cannot be processed by naturally occurring cellular processes. For example, natural DNA polymerases cannot read and duplicate this information, thus the genetic information stored in XNA is invisible to DNA-based organisms.
As of 2011, at least six types of synthetic sugars have been shown to form nucleic acid backbones that can store and retrieve genetic information. Research is now being done to create synthetic polymerases to transform XNA. The study of the production and application of XNA molecules has created the field of current xenobiology.
Background
The structure of DNA was discovered in 1953. Around the early 2000s, researchers created a number of exotic DNA-like structures, XNA. These are synthetic...
Greg Egan
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